Inculcating and Educating Professional Codes and Professional Behaviour
3 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2011 Last revised: 22 Jul 2011
Date Written: July 3, 1998
Abstract
This paper considers the problems of educating and training lawyers in ethical behaviour. It looks at the current system of education and training in legal ethics in England and Wales, considers some empirical work on the observation of legal ethical codes in a particular context and draws conclusions about the importance of codes and culture within different organisations. Training students on issues of legal ethics in context could make a big difference. The original conduct rules which related to etiquette between professionals have moved more towards competent practice and ethical behaviour towards clients. Deregulation and competition within the professions have coincided with the move away from altruism as a professional ideal towards a more open commercialism. The culture of an organisation is more important than any conduct rule. Flagrant breaches of the codes are shown in relation to particular examples of prosecutorial behaviour against the Crown Prosecution Code and the Code of Conduct for Solicitors and the Bar. It is suggested that institutional objectives must be aligned with conduct rules or else there will be little hope for ensuring that they will be kept.
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